Word: royalities
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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While a messenger was dispatched with the letter, the King bundled his royal clan, along with Premier Constantine Kollias and the commander of the air force, aboard the two planes at Tatoi airbase and took off for the north of Greece, where the bulk of Greece's 118,000-man army is concentrated along the Turkish border. Constantine's plan, such as it was, called for assuming command of those troops and making a triumphant march southward that would scare the junta into quitting...
...step down. Politicians on both the right and left sent the King secret assurances of their support, should he make a move. His advisers, mostly retired generals, assured him that the military would obey his commands. Furthermore, Constantine sensed a growing threat to what was left of his royal power. He may also have feared that the new constitution that was being prepared under junta guidance would strip the crown of the power of appointing and dismissing Premiers, the King's most potent prerogative...
...strength is the love of the people," is the motto of the Glicksburg dynasty from which Constantine springs. No Greek king should take it too seriously. The army is the royal source of strength in Greece. Constantine had on his side some of the generals who had won their stars by royal favor, but he underestimated the degree to which the junta had won the junior officers over to its side. Constantine also miscalculated his own popularity among the people. Danes, not Greeks, the royal family draws a $566,000 annual income in a land that, despite recent economic progress...
After reaching Rome, the King spent the day at the Greek embassy, then moved his family into the nearby villa of his cousin, Prince Henry of Hesse. While the royal ladies called in Rome Designer Federico Fourquet and ordered warmer clothes for the colder climate, King Constantine got on with what his father, Paul, once called the business of kingship. He refused to make any public statement, explained to friends that he was still "working to save my country." He made it plain that he would not under any circumstance abdicate, and that he as King still represented Greece...
...junta insisted that it would retain the monarchy and appointed as temporary regent Lieut. General George Zoetakis, who was sworn in by Archbishop Leronymos, formerly the chaplain of the royal family and the King's personal confessor. Pictures of the King and Queen, which had been taken down from government offices in the first hours of the countercoup, were put back in their accustomed places. Orthodox priests were ordered to retain the passages about the King and royal family in their Sunday prayers...